Small-scale agricultural grassland management can affect soil fungal community structure as much as continental scale geographic patterns.

ABSTRACT: A European transect was established, ranging from Sweden to the Azores, to determine the relative influence of geographic factors and agricultural small-scale management on the grassland soil microbiome. Within each of five countries (factor 'Country'), which maximized a range of geographic factors, two differing growth condition regions (factor 'GCR') were selected: a favorable region with conditions allowing for high plant biomass production and a contrasting less favorable region with a markedly lower potential. Within each region, grasslands of contrasting management intensities (factor 'MI') were defined: intensive and extensive, from which soil samples were collected. Across the transect, 'MI' was a strong differentiator of fungal community structure, having a comparable effect to co

SUBMITTER: Fox A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8684450 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature